Last blog of 2020

 After doing a few days of choice making, I decided to go with selling shirts. Meanwhile, the money with go half for me for material for manuscript copies and the other half will go to my sister for material for shirt designs.

So the front with come with the slogan "Chill Out with Shiver and Fears" and the name of the author (me) on the back.

But there's more than that going on with this idea. My sister needs some repetition, so I'm also adding customized shirt of your own idea! I had her make me a Magical Times shirt.

 Turned out pretty good.

So right now we're setting up a store on Shiver and Fears Facebook page, I actually don't think it'll get much attention. So I decided to post a PayPal account.

As for now:

 a Shiver and Fears manuscript will cost $5.00

Shiver and Fears T-shirt $10.00

and a customized shirt is $13.00

Now before I mentioned about key chains. I'm not sure about that now. Instead, I think I'll keep that as a hobby or gift exchange idea for now.

Sales get posted in January, but if you'd like to support our cases you can pay here: Paypal

We'll see how well this goes. If well, then we might expand.

Changes for 2021

   With this being the last year of 2020, it gave me time to think how to make Shiver and Fears (and Magical Times) more popular. What I plan to do is sell books myself and a few other things. Over the year of 2020, Shiver and Fears has gained popularity with monthly give-a-ways and Instagram followers.

   This gives me the thought that it's time to show them what I have to offer in this entire business without having them being pushed somewhere else to do so. No more telling people to "go to" in order to learn more. It's time they get that information front hand.

   I am planning to sell printed copies of Shiver and Fears books instead of letting the book store do it for me. Now this doesn't mean you can't buy a book from Barnes and Noble or even Amazon. This just helps other have an easier access to books. What I want to do is sell by prints and emails along with key chains figures, and maybe even T-shirts... Maybe.

  2020 has been a hard year but has made my work grow a few inches. Now, although Magic 104.1 KMGL hasn't accepted me, I know a few of you have. Thank you and keep being there, because I need it. If you would like a printed or emailed a copy of an AJ Hard original contact me at Facebook or here on the blog... and then of course there's email. Hope you know that one!

The Most Busiest Time of the Year

 Why is it December is the busiest month for Shiver and Fears? It because we’re not reaching out to just fans. We reach out to friends, family, and new fans as well. Not to mention getting things ready for the holidays. For one thing, I go Christmas shopping for as many people as possible, decorate and play music for many people to see and hear, and send cards to dozens of people. But I’m not just done there. 

    January 2020 was Shiver and Fears first time being the Martin Luther King Parade. I want to do it again for 2021. Which means everything needs to be getting set in December.  

So, let's recap what Shiver and Fears author, me, is doing in December: Practicing music, decorating, shopping AND wrapping presents, preparing for the MLK parade, and the casual writing books, teaching, and helping at church... 

I’m full of Christmas spirit and want to spread the joy to others. You might be a person who recognizes grumpy people, or might be labeled as a person in a careless rush. But this is not the season for that. This is the season to look past people who are upset, grumpy, pushy, and saying stuff like “I hate Christmas” and to wish them the merriest of holidays, and hope for the best. 

Surprising to hear from a horror fiction writer, I know, but the thing is I don’t write horror fiction because I love horror. I write to reach to those kids who don’t want an original baby story about “The Sad Little Ghost”, or “The Monster that Couldn’t Scare” But something exciting and fun.  I might say thing like “Scary Creepsmas!” but the warm feeling of Christmas itself makes me shine! 

Let's Meet an Author: RevAleechea Pitts

Meet our last author of 2020: RevAleechea Pitts

she wrote the book "Let It Go for Your Sake!: Forgive!"

Click to check it out> click here

RevAleechea Pitts enjoys Singing & Musician

go to her website at www.aleecheapitts.com

RevAleechea likes non-fiction and religion/philosophy and writes non-fiction, self-help, Christian

Ms. Pitts writes other stories too, check out what else she has > Amazon profile

Silent Night

It's that time of year again, which I want to state I published this the week of Thanksgiving. And although many people (maybe you) say Christmas shouldn't start until December 1, but I state 25 day is just not enough... off topic!

What I want to talk about in this blog is how Christmas is coming and the new book won't be out until  2021, but the new Christmas album is placed! This video here is actually from the first Christmas album, but the reason I posted it, is because The new album isn't ready when writing this blog.

   So wait, what is this blog about? Christmas, of course! And what makes this album so much better is because of two guest star include Collin McMichaels and Macey Hay. Who are these people you may ask, two amazing friends who have a heart for music. If you enjoyed this first Christmas album, then you'll need to look into this next one!

   Now, about what Shiver and Fears are doing for Christmas. It's our annual Scary Christmas to All and to All a Good Fright Give-a-way and we're doing more! We are also sending Christmas card to all our fans from our ghost pal Boo.

Wait, what? Who is Boo? Oh gosh, you need to catch up! Check out our YouTube videos, because this is a story for another day!

White Christmas- Preformed by Asia Hardwick

 So, let me tell you what happened to me this holiday season!

Say Podcast and Die w/ AJ Hard

 I just got finished doing an interview with Andy and Alyssa. They are the host of a podcast for Goosebumps stories. >SayPodcastandDie so where do I come fit in this? Well, not only is R. L. Stine my inspiration, but I also write horror fiction myself!

It was fun to meet Andy and Alyssa on Zoom and chatting about not only Shiver and Fears, but Goosebumps as well. How's I meet these two girls? It's a funny story, but in long story short terms: We found each other on Instagram. We were both interested in Goosebumps and liked similar posts, well when I found out they post podcasts, I had to check it out myself! 

It's fun to think there are people out there who do more with Goosebumps then just reading it, including me writing my own series, and the girls publishing podcasts about the stories. I won't give much away because I'm hoping this will lead you into checking not only my interview, but a dozen of Alyssa's and Andy's podcasts.

Right now, I'm listening to the Monster Blood 2 summary. One reason I enjoy the podcasts is because recapping details from the book I've never noticed myself makes the books more interesting. When I've read Goosebumps, I never paid so much attention to the scenery and details, but more on the plot itself, (Which might explain why I don't like many other books but R. L. Stine series) But when listening to these excellent conversationists, Andy and Alyssa, it opens my eyes more on the story.

If you enjoy Goosebumps, or even if you don't know about Goosebumps (which you should, because they're popular) these pod casters will introduce you to and give you a reason to read R. L. Stine's stories more.

My best advice is to say "CHILL OUT! and listen to 'Say Podcast and Die'"

Let's Meet an Author: JaLeissa Speight

It's that time again, we have another author we would like you to meet,

this is JaLeissa Speight

she is the writer of "You Are My Sonshine" (pretty clever huh?)

You can find her book here at amazon < click here

Jaleissa enjoys spending time with family and cooking

She doesn't have a website yet, but check out what she has on social media

She enjoys reading Thriller (I'm sure she'd love "The Unlucky Charm")

but writes Children’s stories herself

wow, we have a few other authors we want you to meet. In the meantime, keep up with Shiver and Fears with our other blog stories

Any questions you want to ask? Comment below, we would see if we can get JaLeissa to answer!

Secret News No one Knew

 So for you Shiver and Fears fans, (if you call yourself that) I have taken a break from writing horror fiction because I wanted to focus more on the new series "Magical Times" It's a full series book about young teenage boys with magical powers, living in a big house with their whole family. (I feel like I've mentioned this before) 

Well after writing 2 more books I decided to go back to 'Shiver and Fears' and do some work. This would also include cover designs, remodel of the website, and  preparing a book for 2021. Well as I was setting up the offical book "The Happiest Show Ever" (believe me, it's scary!) I learn a secret that never got revealed... Or did it?

Understand, working alone with these books, and setting up events and ideas is hard so, sometimes I do forget what idea I had in mind. (I guess I'm getting off track.) Well, I was reading the story and thinking of adding a sneak peek of the next story about Dogsnakes, (answer for another day) but read that book 30 was supposed to be the last book published!

That means there is no 31- ect. Are you sure I didn't mention this before? Well, I guess I totally forgot why I wanted to end 'Shiver and Fears' but I don't really think I'm ready to let go. I thought I just wanted time to focus on another book, but turns out I wanted to end it completely!

The thing is, Shiver and Fears' books are starting to pick up. Just last week I sent manuscripts to school and book store in 5 different states! Sold about a dozen audiobooks this year and gained more followers every month.

So what do you think? Want more Shiver and Fears?

More about the author: Ms. Green

 Back in the Summer of July we introduced the author Deborah Green, Yesterday, we talked back to her and asked if there was anything else she wanted new readers to know. This is what she said "I would like people to know that this is my second publication. That I'm a mother of 4, grandmother of 14 and greatgrandmother of 3. I have 5 films on Amazon Prime."

When hearing this we were amazed, so we did some research. She was in 'Between You and Me' a 2015 film, 'Seth and Tia' made in January of this year (2020) and 'Halt: The Motion Picture' made in 2018. You can find more about this magnificent multi-star here. 

Another thing we found out about Deborah is that she was an assistant director for a film called 'Thieves On the Cross' pretty cool huh?

You just never know who you'll run into, until you chat with them. How did we meet Ms. Green? We crossed terms in a group for authors. I offered a blog intro to any author who would be interested (as you see now) and Deborah was happy to accept our offer!

Shiver and Fears is happy to know other authors and hope to cross paths with a lot more! 

Let's Meet an Author: Tabby Khat

Have you met our next author of the month? You will now!

Meet Tabby Khat

she writes "Science Meet God: An Elemental is Born" and a series called: Storm of Emotions

find one of her books if you click here

 she has a ton of interests, such as  painting, being an author, she's a mother of four. Tabby like arts and crafts, Fairy villages, wind chimes, bird feeders, and blankets too! (wow that's a lot!)

our best way of acknowledging her is by her amazon bio > learn about Tabby

she enjoys Romance and Sci-fi books and mostly writes romance (although "Science Meets God" is a sci-fi)

That's one unique writer right there.

Hey who is your favorite so far? Don't worry we have a few others to look at coming soon. Try to keep up!

The October Plan

 If your reading this blog because you want to know what Shiver and Fears is planning, then you've come to the right place! We can't give much though.

First, lets start off with the Monsterfied contest. You're only going to hear about our remaining monsters on Instagram. Because that were our judges are picking the best monsters. But I will say, just like last year, we will have a first place and second place. Our first place and 2nd place winners will win their first audio book of Shiver and Fears, and be posted all over the media!

Second, we are giving away key chains to our fans. We'll be posting those on our next blog, and a few sites as well. These key chains are special, they are custom made by Shrinky dinks and put together on golden lobster clasp. Last year we gave a haunted charm bracelet to one of our fans. She enjoys it a lot and wears it constantly on October.

If you haven't checked our website, Shiverandfears.com, then you haven't heard about Shiver and Fears new upgrade for covers. No, we're not talking about Mei Wu, we're talking about the complete look on the book. What we used to do is place a Polaroid photo as the cover, but starting 2021 we are placing the cover in a hallway of an open door.

 Here is an example. One thing we want to do is add an icing feature to the cover. We'll see what happens. We got time.

Meanwhile, we are still giving birthday prizes to our first 5 Facebook fans of each month. But with it being Halloween month, we're doing more. We posting quiz questions on special groups and giving away MORE audiobook prizes! Wow, that's a lot!

Another thing we're trying to do is get people interested in sending horror photos so we can share them. We'll see how that works.

Fall into a Busy Year

   You might be wondering what have I been up to for the past 3 weeks. It’s been a very busy month, I usually blog about 2 per month. (including the Author of the month) But September is a very busy month for me. For one thing I’m receiving wonderful gifts from friends, family, and fans this year. I got a surprise message from Jason and Kylie. 

   If you haven’t guessed, my birthday was just two weeks ago! Once that was done I talked to Alisa Reyes and asked her to make a video for my friend for HIS birthday. So I’ve been working on that for a while. 

   You also may have forgotten that next month we reveal the monster of the year! So far, we are down to our semifinalists, only 6 more to choose from. Our judges are doing a great job, they know what’s scary! 

   Meanwhile, I have been spending hours at work for all three jobs, coaching, teaching, and writing. In fact, I’m late for the new “Magical Times” book. As for ‘Shiver and Fears’ they will be making a comeback in 2021 of Spring. Now what about my new job as an artist? Well Music is coming and going. Only because I am working on a NEW new project which is learning to read music. 

Shocking, huh?! This is one of the busiest parts of the Shiver and Fears team, and with Randon having to quit and Mei coming to her last projects, I'll be back into working on this stuff alone. (very common) Don’t Worry though, we are keeping you informed with as much info as possible about our plans. We hadn’t even talked about Halloween yet, huh? Wouldn’t you like to know! 

Let's Meet an Author: Angelina Kanan

 

Meet our new author we chose. Her name is: Angelina Kanan

She wrote the book "Beasts"

Go here to read this book> Beasts

Angelina enjoys Singing, cooking, writing, crochet, knitting & reading (fascinating stuff!)

check out her stuff at www.angelinakanan.com

Angelina favorite book genre is Fantasy Romance & that is also what she writes too!

Comment on what you think about her book. We'd love to hear from you!

A Collection of Areas

 We already disscussed about how Shiver and Fears is a big thing, and how my work may not be popular, but it is grabbing attention from people all over the place.I've chatted with Kyle Massey, Louie Crown, Issac Brown, and a few fans as well. Let me get to the point: So, my work has traveled to dozens of sites, and although I can't show you EVERY SINGLE ONE. I've highlight the main ones here: FLOWPAGE.

Which one was the most interesting to you? I will tell you, the most popular is the music on spotify! Everyone is loving the song On the Shelf! You tube is big too, there are not just songs, but vlogs, skits, and stories. My most favorite is Behance. If you check it out, you'll see why.

If you are an artist in books, music, or fashion, then you might want a flowpage too! To me, it's the easiest way to show all your work without a long list of links.

Sorry, I wanted to post this for you to see... What do you think? Scary, don't you think? You know they don't have a lot of monster shoe picture, not unless they are "cute" for kids. Here at Shiver and Fears, we don't want cute. We want fun scares! That doesn't include blood covered monsters eating babies. (No need to ask where that idea came from!) 

Anyway, another thing I want to inspire you to do is check out more blogs about these author's we met with. They are pretty fun, once you get to know them. And hey we just had a monster parade on instagram, check that out too, @shiverandfears

Illustration partner

Before I tell you some fun news let me make sure you know about what you alrweady know. My artist partner Randon Timberlake has re-illustrated a few book covers for Shiver and Fears. and he still is, but as time passes it might be time to work with another partner. So that's where this artwork comes in. If you haven't heard, Shiver and Fears got an upgrade with the book "Why I Don't Play Video Games" more gruesome huh? This was put together by Mei Wu and artist found on social media. We'll see how well this goes. Meantime, we're not sure if Random still wants to work with us. Who's artwork do you like more? Randon or Mei? Randon did his picture for the book "Puppet Family" Awkward don't you think? I think so for sure.

Meanwhile here is another fearing story to tell! We are monsterfying our fans early this year! Why, you may ask, here is what we're thinking: Starting in the month of October give us 10 days for entries, 20 days for votes, and 1 day to reveal winner. (broken up evenly) By starting in August, that's a whole month to enter in the contest, a month to chat with our judges and enough time to choose which monster is the best for the whole year!

 This is an example of one of our monster fans. This isn't really the guy who entered, but he sent a picture of someone, I guess his brother, and we made a monster out of him. That's the fun part of the contest, it doesn't have to be a portrait of yourself, it can even be a drawing! Just as long as we have a name behind it, you're in.

We are encouraging social media fans to send us a picture by DM, but for you blog readers, enter the contest by sending your picture to shiverandfears@gmail.com. Just remember to add your name so if you win we know who it belongs to.

That's all we have for now, but if we have any more news... well, you know how to find us!

Let's Meet an Author: Keshia McEntire

You ready for this one? Meet Keshia McEntire

she is the writer of The Eden Saga:

(Saving Eden and Finding Eden)

Just click here < to see her work

Other than writing Keshia is interested in photography, travel, and baking

Keshia doesn't have a website, but she does have a facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/KRSMCENTIRE/

she likes to read YA dystopian, sci-fi, and fantasy

and writes YA dystopian (with science fantasy elements)

Reminds me of Magical Times books I write. Hers might be a little more adventurous. Comment what you think

Shiver and Fears

8th Bookaversary, Shiver and Fears

Shiver and Fears annual book anniversary is today! Wow, to think one book started all this! Back in 2012 The Haunted Cell Phone was just manuscript on a computer, but soon became an idea for everyone to read.

Now we have reached 32 horror fiction books in 8 wholes years. Over 150 audio books from this series has been sold and made around $300 doing it! About 7 teenage tv stars have made an appearance video in Shiver and Fears behave. 3 books reviewers have commented about the author and his books (me).

Shiver and Fears has made contact to 1584 people on Facebook and has a total of 277 likes on Facebook and 342 followers on Instagram. 

Now you gaze at this information and might be like "Don't sound so successful to me." But the truth is the fact that numbers do go up, and the fact that this series has traveled the globe to many english-speaking people, shows more than you think.

It's good to know the bookaversary still stands even with all this craziness going around. We'll be sure to check rating next year and compare how much has changed!

Happy Bookaversary!

Let's Meet an Author: Deborah Green

Welcome to the month of July where you can meet: Deborah Chenault-Green

This kind lady wrote the book called "I Am! Say it, See it, Believe it, Receive it"

 Check it out at: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/I-am5

when not writing Deborah enjoys acting, directing and casting

Want more? learn about Deborah in www.deborahchenaultgreen.com

she enjoys a good book with suspense and/or spiritual

and she writes spiritual self help and poetry

can you write poetry? Share us a comment with your best work!

Added on the Shelf

https://www.michaelmickeywilliamsjr.com/2020/06/09/featured-authors-2/ So for those of you in Facebook's group: Read It AJ Hard Collection ^this is the website you can find Shiver and Fears at. We chatted with a guy named Michael Williams Jr. and he collects book authors. He was kind enough to add "Something Strange About Greg" to his list of authors.

Why are we blogging about it? Well, it's strange, Facebook is denying postage with links! I don't know the full details, but apparently it's not ok to post this link to our group, weird huh? I didn't want to write a blog today, but it was the only way we could share the link.

Now I'm sure there's some kind of way to beat around this. Post it on the profile and share it to the group, post it on another social media, or just post it on the Shiver and Fears page. Yeah, maybe, but I like to get things done quickly.

 Click the link and find this picture and see what you think. If you can't, comment.

An Author's Advantages

We've met a few new people last month. Of course there's Sehloho Rampai, our author of the month. One person I chatted with was

 Ethan Wacker. Funny thing was my niece loved watching 

Bizaardvark and one of her favorite characters were Bernie Shots. 

(She felt bad for his push-aside character on the show.) But after the show she

was worried about him with the entire quarantine issue. I told her I might be able to 

get a hold of him. "Ask him how he's doing?" she told me.

Now this was around the time I was writing my new book for Magical Times.

 As I started writing to him, my niece asked me about my story. I told her 

it was about magical twin brothers and their talking dog.

 "Do you think Ethan would like to be in your book?" she asked.

 I told her I wasn't sure, but I'd ask. Now, when I don't sell many copies of 

my work, but I do have a collection of fans (my niece and a few of her

 friends.) They were all excited to know if Ethan would like to guest star in 

my story. 

A day or two later Ethan messaged me back saying he would

 love to star in my book. Hopefully, I can get this book done soon, because

 I want Ethan to like it. Right now, you can catch a glimpse of the book

 at wattpad.com 

If you haven't heard already, Shiver and Fears had quit working with 

Lulu and is now looking for another print publishing company to work with.

 I know, I know. Shiver and Fears is putting a hold on publishing for 

now on as I said before, and we are. We're taking a break, while we look

 into some options. But right now Ethan can't wait to read the

 next Magical Times story. I bet you can't either.

Let's Meet an Author: Sehloho Rampai

We have another author for June we want to introduce. In my opinion, he's unique. I'm sure you'll like him too.

Meet Sehloho Piet Rampai

He has written four Poetry Books including The Word, Poetic Justice, Poetry O'clock and Mabinabine

You can find his work at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Rampai

His hobbies are coaching and playing Rugby as he is a qualified Rugby Coach and enjoy farming a lot

Sehloho has a blog: Sehloho Piet Rampai.com and a website Word Press.com

Sehloho's favorite book genre to read and write is poetry!

Hopefully, you enjoyed our first poet, can't wait to know our next author!

We don't get a lot of male poets. Comment below on what you think about our author this month. Want to learn more about him? Comment your questions below or visit him on facebook

Attention to the Authors of...

    Just yesterday May 20th I posted a request for writers to take an interview for Shiver and Fears blog. Over 100 comments replied to this post. In order to keep things organized, we had to lead them to Shiver and Fears facebook page to ask a few questions for them to answer.

   In this result we've placed 9 authors in a blog. That's enough for the rest of this year and 2 extra months! Within 1.5 days! You might not think it's so impressive, but it sure amazed the team. Today there are still authors wishing to be a part of our blog, but at this point we have to wait for 2021 if we planned on continuing this oppertunity.

   Why do we do this? It's what we call "Help Me Help You" As I explained in the live video earlier, thousands of authors want to be noticed, so they tend to always introduce themselves. Imagine if one author introduced someone else. Their fans would pay attention to that one author, because they've included their favorite author. Now question is, who is this stranger? This stranger is an author himself!

   So what I hope come out from this is that the author will share the kindness given from the stranger which helps promote them more and get the stranger noticed as well. Confused? Don't be. What happens here is similar to what happens in life. You share what's being shared about you, and by doing that, you're sharing them!  

  In the kindness of letting Shiver and Fears use a year worth of authors to write about Shiver and Fears has given each one a free audiobook written by the author (me), AJ Hard. What we want in return is very simple, just to redeem the book, listen to it, and give a public review on the audible site or a  social media post (tagging Shiver and Fears, of course) about what you thought about the story. 

Just remember to redeem your code by the end of the month (I can't hold an unused code forever)

Dear Future authors of America

As an author, I have made many choices in publishing books. Now that I've learned a few things, let me pass this advise to the future writers of America.
One thing I've noticed for sure is that self publishing is a little complicated for first term people. Some simple things that I've learned, (and maybe you already know) is that:
Title is most likely used for book series, chances are the Subtitle is where you place the title of the story for the series. So keep that in mind.
I think the hardest part about making a book is fixing the cover. From what I've experienced there are two choices to making a cover. 1Make it yourself or 2 Use their cover choices (which leads to an image cover or just a title cover) My best advise is go for their choice in covers ONLY if you're unskilled to make your own.
What's hard about making your own cover is fixing the proper size and that everything placed satisfies the company. I've worked with KPD before, They have unusual covers that may or may not work for you. The back must mostly include a description, bio and self picture. For image covers  it doesn't need the title and author name because they are placed for editing for you.
Now another company I tried was Lulu. They want everything in PDF fonts matter, size matters, and you also can create the cover. I quit working with them when they upgraded everything. Too complicated!  I sent in the manuscript 20 times and each time it was not accepted by lulu, because of DPI, font embedding, and proper size in PDF (oh brother!)
The best company so far is Barnes and Nobles Press, which reminds me. With KDP books will be published in Amazons around the country, they use to do more... Lulu will send copies to their book shop, ingram and Barnes and Noble (I think) But ONLY if you order a copy for yourself! Barnes and Noble Press will just do Barnes and Noble, I believe.

I do want to announce that the best audiobook publisher to go it in author's republic site. The only down side is you'll have to do the reading yourself, That is unless you work with audible where you can hire a narrator. You can either share the royal or pay up to $300. (I share the royal)
Think your ready to be an author? Have a better idea in what your looking for? Did my advice help any at all? Comment below.
BTW marketing, you're on your own!